I am back – Chapter 127

I think I had a dream.

It was a dream, and when I woke up in the morning, most of the memories had flown away, but I still remembered that my older sister was there.

It was a dream from the childhood days for both me and my sister.

Whether it was part of my memories or just a story that came to me against the backdrop of those times, I couldn’t say for sure.

But one feeling I clearly remembered from the dream was—

I felt happy and joyful.

The reason I had that dream was probably that my sister and I could finally meet properly.

Usually, dreaming helps alleviate fatigue, but today I felt remarkably refreshed from the morning. When I just woke up, that typical tiredness didn’t linger at all. Of course, some drowsiness was still hanging around.

Maybe it was because I had fallen asleep in my sister’s arms.

“……”

I got up quietly, only to find that my sister was gone.

…Could it be that everything I thought happened last night was a dream? For a moment, that thought crossed my mind, but as I slowly calmed down and pieced things together, I realized that wasn’t the case.

There was still warmth beside me. It was proof that someone had been lying next to me.

I didn’t think my sister would already be gone to work. After all, there was no reason for her to leave me behind when we worked in the same place.

Especially after we confirmed our feelings for each other yesterday.

I rubbed my eyes and got moving.

Normally, I would wash up first. Then step out to exercise with my colleagues in the living room, come back for a definitive shower, have a simple breakfast, and head to work. That’s how I started my day.

But today, I wanted to check on my sister first.

I knew for sure there had been something between us yesterday, but it still didn’t feel real. I felt I needed to see it with my own eyes before I could relax.

…Even as I thought that, I wondered what if my sister’s feelings had changed in just one day.

As I slowly opened the door and stepped out—

“Oh, Siyun, you’re up?”

I heard my sister’s voice coming from the kitchen.

In an instant, I felt my heart settle. My body relaxed, and I wobbled a bit, but I managed to steady myself.

I couldn’t see my sister from where I stood. She must have said that upon hearing the sound of the door opening.

Were all the colleagues out in the living room? They probably concluded I’d come out because of the door sound.

“I’ve prepared breakfast! I was going to wake you, but you came out just in time.”

Normally, morning exercise would take precedence over breakfast. Come to think of it, I hadn’t checked the time yet. What time was it? Judging by the sun, I might have slept longer than usual. But considering how deeply I slept, it made sense.

As I’d expected, all my colleagues were awake.

Kalia and Arna hardly showed any signs of being messy from sleep, but Pia and Dana usually stumbled into the living room with hair sticking out in every direction and barely open eyes. While they never displayed such appearances on the battlefield due to intense vigilance, at least since coming back to this world, it had always been that way.

And I thought there was nothing wrong with such a sight, compared to how tense they had been on the battlefield. It felt natural and human-like.

Well, Kalia was originally a noble and had a history of being the captain of the knight order, so waking up early must have been her routine, and Arna was an elf. She had her years, and she might have preferred a bit more sleep, even though she didn’t like being treated as an old woman and occasionally blurted such things out.

But the four of them gathered around the table looked perfectly fine. Even Pia and Dana were dressed neatly, suggesting it was time they had to pull themselves together.

It was then that I glanced at the clock in the living room. Indeed, I woke up much later than usual. Compared to the time I usually went to work, I still had some time left.

“You usually exercise in the mornings, right?”

“Yeah……”

“I felt bad for waking you up because you were sleeping so soundly. Should I have woken you?”

“No, it’s fine……”

I responded with a somewhat dazed expression at the fact that my sister was already ready to go after washing up.

She must have woken up much earlier than I did to prepare breakfast. I hadn’t realized she was ready to leave for work too.

Still feeling a bit muddled, I approached the dining table.

“Good morning.”

The first to greet me was Kalia.

“Did you sleep well?”

The next to speak up was Arna, and,

“Good morning~”

Pia, looking neat but still seeming half-asleep, greeted me.

“You still seem a bit out of it.”

Dana chuckled when she saw me.

“Good morning, everyone……”

Because I still hadn’t shaken off the drowsiness, I walked to the table in a slightly dazed manner.

Breakfast was soybean paste stew. Since Dana had made it before, there wouldn’t be any situation where the party members couldn’t eat it. Initially, everyone had been horrified by the smell. Even Dana had tried it once.

Thinking about that, I took a seat next to my sister.

Everyone was looking at me. It felt as if they were waiting for me to start eating first.

I looked at my sister next to me. She was smiling brightly at me.

“……I’ll eat well.”

Not knowing what else to say, I blurted that out first.

And after taking my first spoonful, I realized it was different from the soybean paste stew Dana had made last time.

Not because the taste was special or anything. It was—

An incredibly familiar taste.

It was a flavor I hadn’t eaten for five whole years, and yet, it rose to the surface the moment it hit my mouth, a flavor I longed for.

…It tasted just like the home-cooked meals my mom used to make.

“How is it?”

My sister, seated next to me, asked anxiously.

“It’s my mom’s… uh, I mean, it’s a recipe I got from your mother.”

I see.

So it was a recipe from my mom.

“……It’s delicious.”

I said with a slightly trembling voice.

I see.

Only after tasting this stew did I finally realize that everything that had happened yesterday was indeed real and that this moment wasn’t a dream.

And I also realized the possibility that I might not have even dreamed at all.

That there was someone in this world who believed I was really Siyun. Someone who had always been with me, one of the few who knew me best, believed that truth.

Doesn’t that mean that someday, my mom might believe in me too?

My nose tinged with tears.

This was a possibility I had completely given up on after my death. Even when I didn’t know I would die twice, I thought there would be no way. No matter how similar to me a guy with my face was, I didn’t think that was even a possibility.

But… it wasn’t that way.

There was a chance. It was just me who had given up arbitrarily.

Thinking that I might never meet my colleagues again, thinking I could never go back to the way things were with my sister, those were just notions I created when I surrendered everything.

Ah, my vision blurred a little again.

I struggled not to shed tears and ate my meal diligently.

Even though the others probably noticed the tears in my eyes, nobody said anything. Thanks to that, what would typically be a lively breakfast time felt incredibly quiet.

I felt a bit sorry about that.

*

Fortunately, I didn’t end up crying while eating. I managed to finish my meal without a tear, then shower, change my clothes, and stepped outside.

I thought I would head straight to work, but my sister was waiting for me in the living room.

So were the other colleagues. They all sat around the table.

Their strangely quiet demeanor made me a bit nervous. Did they have something they wanted to discuss all together?

Approaching with caution, my sister smiled at me. Seeing that made me exhale a small breath. It didn’t seem like a serious topic. My sister and the colleagues didn’t show a heavy atmosphere either.

However, separate from that, it felt like they were gauging me.

Sitting beside my sister, she opened her mouth first.

“Siyun.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been thinking.”

“Yeah.”

“That… well, we’ve both learned the truth about each other.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Of course, I knew my sister still needed time to fully accept things. I understood it wasn’t because she didn’t believe me. It was just that believing the situation itself wasn’t easy. The very mention of magic, goddesses, and demon kings must feel foreign to her.

“So, um…”

My sister, looking like she found it hard to bring it up, pondered for a moment, then took a deep breath as if she made up her mind.

And then,

“So, I was wondering if I could stay here… with you…”

She said that while exhaling a long sigh all at once.

“…Huh?”

In that moment, I couldn’t fully grasp the meaning of her words.